The damn gym makes me get sick all the time

I get sick all the time because the students go to the gym when they are sick. Should I walk around with hand sanitizer all the time? It's getting to where I'm going to have to walk around with a little bag with my micro-weights, with 2.5lb plates (because I can never find two when I need them), reading glasses, my notebook and a towel and spray stuff to clean all the equipment. It's getting pretty ridiculous.

How the hell do you survive the gym? I've walked thousands of miles, lived in the dirt, pooped without toilet paper and never gotten sick but now that I go to a gym I get sick every couple months.

i have almost always gone to body builders gyms. no one even uses towels on the equipment. the showers are freezing cold. as in you cant change the temp on them. the doors out to the balcony are always open. i never get sick. i did go to a gym once which was a bit hysterical about towels and sanitising spray. people breathe tho so i figured it was most likely a waste of time other than for appearances sake. maybe take some sodium ascorbate for a while and do things to build your own immunity?

Our gym has sanitation wipes to use. I wipe down the machines before and after I use them. I wipe them down even if I see others wiping them down before I use them. My gym was once empty on the sanitation wipes, so I went into the bathroom and got a soggy paper towel with soap in it.

I am also sure to NEVER touch my eyes, mouth, face, etc. That's how you get sick.

If you notice a lot of people tend to cough when they're running on the treadmill or otherwise working out heavily. Just breathe through your nose and don't touch your face until you wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water.

But yeah, I agree. It's disgusting when people go to the gym sick, or otherwise go to a public place. When I worked at a grocery store people would show up sick all the time, cashiers and deli workers included. They didn't want to miss out on pay, and I'm guessing that's the same reason people go to the gym sick. They pay for it, and don't want to miss out on their money's worth or their exercise routine (when sleeping in bed would do them more good). It's like college kids showing up to class sick because they feel like they can't miss it, and paid lots of money to be there.

Stumbled into Primal due to food allergies, and subsequent elimination of non-primal foods.

Are these people coughing or sneezing in your space? Or are you claiming to get sick simply from touching things? You can't get sick from touching things unless you subsequently touch your eyes, nose or mouth. That's how the viruses get in. So I would actively avoid being around anyone spraying the area with their germs through coughing or sneezing, I would avoid the water fountain period (bring water from home), and I would wash my hands very well prior to allowing myself to touch my face for any reason. I went to the gym for years using this strategy and never got sick.

PM me if you're interested in setting up a home gym where you don't have to worry about these things. I have my entire set-up in a 11 x 13 loft in my condo (not including my doorway-mounted pullup bar), and I do heavy (for me) squats, deadlifts, bench press, presses, power cleans, weighted chin-ups and dips. And I spent less than a year's worth of gym dues for everything.

And I still clean everything. I have a spray bottle of Everclear (yeah, the stuff you drank out of 55-gallon trash cans at college frat parties). Guaranteed to kill everything, including you if you ingest enough.

That's all there is to is. I ended up having to buy a few more plates which I got from various sources (some Wal-Mart, before I quit shopping there), but most ladies will never have to go farther than a basic set of 2 x 45, 2 x 35, 2 x 25, 2 x 10, 4 x 5, 2 x 2.5.

I also have some 2" ID washers from Mc-Master Carr for microloading

Has been working out great. No complaints (well, my downstairs neighbors complained, but then I moved everything from the living room upstairs to the loft and they haven't objected).

2nd edit: Just saw you're in the UK, Katsuhiko. I'm not sure what's available there, but I'd be glad to offer my un-professional opinion on anything you're looking at. The general idea should be the same.